If you want your car to perform its best then you have to take proper care of the tyres round the year and there is no second opinion about it. With worn out or damaged tyres handling a vehicle becomes undeniably little problematic. Other issues too pop up when the tyres of a vehicle are not healthy and most important of these issues are loss of fuel efficiency and stopping distance of the vehicle in question. In order to ensure safer driving on the road and optimal performance of your vehicle regular monitoring the condition of the tyres is a vital task which you should not skip under any circumstance.
How long does a tyre last? How do I know that my tyres need replacement? These are some obvious questions that pop up in the mind every now and then when tyre care and maintenance are concerned. Let us try our best addressing these questions in the following sections of this post.
How long does a tyre last?
Please do not expect a numerical value as an answer to this question because predicting the number of years a tyre may last is actually quite difficult. Just like many other objects under the sun, the life of any tyre depends on a handful of factors like –
- How often a vehicle is driven
- The condition of the road on which the vehicle is mostly driven
- Driving technique of an individual
- The place where the vehicle is parked most of the time
- The climatic and the weather conditions a tyre is directly exposed to for the maximum period of time
- How much distance in a year the vehicle is driven
In addition to the factors mentioned above the quality of a tyre is also important to determine how long it may last points out a mechanic who provides the service of mobile tyre fitting in Finchley over the years. As a matter of fact any of the factors mentioned above can significantly affect the life of your tyres and this is why a tyre usually lasts anywhere between 3 and 10 years.
If you ask any expert they will recommend replacing tyres every 20,000 miles of driving or 10 years whichever is earlier. But it is more important to note that there are several symptoms that you must be aware about and in case if you ever experience any of those symptoms then you may have to change your tyres without caring for 10 years or 20,000 miles of driving. The symptoms include the following –
- A tread that is badly worn down
- Cracks in the rubber
- Repeated loss of air pressure pretty fast than usual
- Wobbly wheels especially while driving at high speed
If you experience any of the symptoms above it is better to give the tyres a check up by a skilled and experienced tyre mechanic to take the final call.
A badly worn out tyre tread
Brand new tyres have a standard tread depth of 8 mm. In course of time this measurement keeps thinning with regular usage of the vehicle because of the friction of the tyre with the road surface. When the tread depth of a tyre sinks to 1.6 mm the tyre is not fit for use any more. Now here is a legal tangle that has to be taken into consideration. As far as the UK is concerned as well as almost every other country in the Europe a tyre with tread depth measuring 1.6 mm is not considered safe for any more use in the eyes of law explains a mobile mechanic who deals with tyres in Finchley. Violation of this rule leads to hefty financial penalty and it is important for you to ensure tread depth of your tyres never sink below the 1.6 mm mark to invite wrath from the law enforcers.
The thinner the tread depth of a tyre, the longer distance the vehicle requires to come to stop, which in other words raises the possibilities of accidents on road. The risks of an accident are even higher in this condition when you are driving on a wet or icy surface. Tyre experts suggest in order to be on the safer side – both in terms of your safety on the road and the rulebook – you should have your tyres replaced once the tread depth sinks below 3 mm.
Cracks appearing in a tyre
Cracks are very common in the tyres for those vehicles that are left parked in the open and exposed to the direct sun for hours together round the year. Now, you may wonder why these cracks occur; tyres are made from rubber although there are hundreds of other components are also there apart from rubber. But the main ingredient is rubber which is naturally pliable explains a mobile tyre mechanic who provides affordable and cheap mobile tyre fitting in Finchley. Rubber provides tyres certain level of elasticity. When your vehicle is in motion, certain chemicals are automatically released to lubricate your tyres further. But when a vehicle is not making much movement and is left parked on a spot there is a scarce of lubricating chemical and as a result a tyre or the rubber in it dries up faster. Dried out tyres obviously develop cracks. Excessive exposure to direct sunlight also leads to development of cracks on a tyre pretty easily.
It is important discuss what you can do to avoid development of cracks in your tyres. Two most important solutions include the following –
- Always park your vehicle under a shade away from direct sun exposure.
- You must drive your vehicle a little almost on everyday basis.
Following these tips may not be possible on a day to day basis but you must try to follow these solutions as much as possible to avoid developing cracks on your tyres. Moreover these tips also help extending life of tyres to a significant extent.
Quick loss of air pressure in a tyre
When your tyre starts losing air pressure faster than it should perhaps it is an indication that the tyre has become quite old and needs a replacement. Mechanics who offer the service of 24hr mobile tyre fitting in Finchley point out in these cases the air escapes either from the seal around the alloy or from the cracks that develop on the rubber of a tyre.
